Oxy changes his naming scheme to Community... and inexplicably doesn't get cancelled

[Cheater Hater]

I did finally play the turn, pictures are here, but I'm really checked out of the game at this point. I even contemplated just sending one final PM to BaII finalizing my resignation and never posting in this thread again. I mean, what's left? I revolted to Nationhood in an attempt to salvage anything, I probably will still take Krabbe (and there's no reason not to keep it with plako's troops standing guard--if plako turns on us there's no point in even this meager defense), but it's not like it matters--my one hope left is that xenu loses more troops than average at Jeff (he does only have 2 Cats, and my defenses aren't god-awful, especially the two Pikes), and then he stumbles around enough that I can suicide my Cat stack into it and clean up with my various drafted Maces.

Again, we get to the "what's the point" part of my analysis--there's no way I could have salvaged this situation I walked in on! I mean, yes I slipped in a couple defensive builds and let Duncan get razed, but that doesn't really change things--having ~5 more units isn't going to stop Jeff from burning, and using the whip any more aggressively than I did just puts us farther behind in the upcoming economic race (to Curaissiers/Rifling/Astronomy/whatever else we need to make more gains). Can I not be next to opponents that clearly overbuild military (to their detriment long-term) in one of my games? Of course, it doesn't matter, since I'm not playing any games for a long time (if ever)...

[Cheater Hater]

I'm surprised with how quickly I wanted to play the turn--pictures are here, and I played the whole turn in one sitting for the first time since the war began! Obviously xenu burned Jeff, but I don't think he'll burn anything next turn--I actually managed to stuff 10 units into Abed, while xenu only has 11 Knights in range (and Abed is on a hill with 60% culture defenses). The problem if xenu sees it is that he can fork three cities next turn (Abed/Pierce/Annie), and if he does I don't think I can put a reasonable number of defenses in any of them. If that happens I have two options: sacrifice a city (almost certainly Annie) or try to attack and kill the stack. I have a single Cat, 3 more new drafted Maces, the drafted Mace in Pierce I couldn't get to Abed this turn, and all the units in Abed right now. If that happens, I'm certainly doing some sims to see what the best option is.

However, we do have an interesting situation in the west--xenu killed my Knight (that I probably shouldn't have put on the hill; I was overly-optimistic based on the odds of Knight vs Pike last turn--but then he promoted and healed ), then loaded his Pike in a Galley and abandoned the city. I moved my Maces over there, but couldn't capture it this turn. The problem is that plako's units are also over there, and thus we have turn split issues. In general, I haven't worried about when plako/I play, but now it likely will matter. Most of the turns it has gone plako->me->xenu, but occasionally my preturn photos have come before plako plays. However, this turn I obviously played first. I'm assuming this means that technically I've double-moved plako and if he contests Krabbe I should let him have it (or at least the option), but I'd be happy to be wrong

[Ceiliazul]

I agree with your turn order analysis "most of the time" = precedent imo. Now if you intentionally want to set up a turn order, I think plako would understand and a PM to state your intention (posted here) would be sporting. Plako is the namesake of the "gentleman if the turn timer" award and is likely to understand completely.

[Ceiliazul]

I even contemplated just sending one final PM to BaII finalizing my resignation and never posting in this thread again. I mean, what's left?
...
Can I not be next to opponents that clearly overbuild military (to their detriment long-term) in one of my games? Of course, it doesn't matter, since I'm not playing any games for a long time (if ever)...

Your war moves are good and I hope you'll play on. This stage in the game eliminations have come quickly when they are available and I dint think you'll be in for extended suffering. Heck, just adopt the whip-draft-end strategy and you'd still be fulfilling your 2x non-quitter points in one game.

Didnt you start this war?

[Cheater Hater]

I even contemplated just sending one final PM to BaII finalizing my resignation and never posting in this thread again. I mean, what's left?
...
Can I not be next to opponents that clearly overbuild military (to their detriment long-term) in one of my games? Of course, it doesn't matter, since I'm not playing any games for a long time (if ever)...

Your war moves are good and I hope you'll play on. This stage in the game eliminations have come quickly when they are available and I dint think you'll be in for extended suffering. Heck, just adopt the whip-draft-end strategy and you'd still be fulfilling your 2x non-quitter points in one game.

Didnt you start this war?

The problem is that I'm not anywhere close to "absolutely dead yet"--xenu will burn at most one more city most likely, which means this war has been pretty even (we've burned two xenu cities and taken one with Krabbe still unresolved, while xenu has burned two of our cities with possibly a third coming), and I doubt plako is going to follow up immediately. The problem is that we don't have much of a chance to do anything major in this game.

I know I started this war, but it's just that I'm frustrated, for two main reasons:

• When we started this war xenu was near us in power and fighting plako, but then his power just exploded away from us even after we burned two cities at the start of the war. I mean, I know I haven't played this war perfectly tactics-wise (maybe I shouldn't have burned all those knights to burn the second southern city, and obviously losing the mounted stack on the rice and letting Duncan burn were clear blunders), but I don't think I've made any clear big strategical errors. Am I supposed to whip my cities to the ground once the war begins? I feel like that makes my success in the war near-guaranteed, but at the huge cost of assuring mediocrity later due to the economic hit (especially with the slavery nerfs in RTR mod).
  
• I don't feel like I had any other realistic options. The only other options were attacking across the water (most likely the backwards HAK or wetbandit) or waiting until plako severely weakened xenu, then attacking. The amphibious option required a ton of hammers sunk into Galleys, and while the initial conquest would likely be easy, defending both the new territory and the mainland (don't forget, xenu still exists in this timeline) should be near-impossible. Waiting seems like a good idea, but I have no idea if the time would ever come--keep in mind plako's just now breaking through, and that's because xenu diverted a bunch of troops to us. If we hadn't attacked, I doubt plako would have been able to take more than one or two cities, especially since it appears plako isn't willing to use his full power (presumably plako has at least one other neighbor).
  

I think part of the problem comes that this situation is very similar to the situation I left as the Zulu, most importantly that both civs started on a peninsula with only direct neighbor. I don't know how much of that is the map (HAK, wetbandit, and GermanJojo could all be on peninsulas for instance, but xenu obviously wasn't), but forcing a civ's action in that way doesn't seem ideal (not that a 33 player map could be close to ideal, but I still don't like it ).

As for the unspoken turn split, I think what I'm going to do is not rush to play my turn (play it tonight, or maybe tomorrow morning), giving plako a chance to play before me. Of course, the best case is that plako ignores Krabbe (instead favoring City A and B from my last map), but I don't know how likely that is

[Cheater Hater]

Turn played, pictures are here for the moment, and there's good news all around! So good, such that I want to write an actual report! Unfortunately, that means making a bunch of Paint pictures, so it may take a bit, but it'll be worth it!

[BaII]

Excellent news, I'm glad that you are still enjoying the game a bit. When your taking the pictures of units have the thing out where you can mark a tile with and use that as a highlighter so it's easier to know which stack your talking about, although we might lose Annie that might not be "too" bad, it's still bad. If he doesn't go into Annie I think we will be able to throw some cat's at the stack and easily clean up from there. Nicely done salvaging a bad situation.

[Cheater Hater]

T164 Report Part 1:
Yes, an actual report! Your eyes are not deceiving you--the person who was ready to quit Civ4 for good just two turns ago has now rebounded to the point where he is doing a full report, complete with compilation Paint pictures! Obviously that means things are going well
Let's start with the best news, over in the former xenu territory:


Last turn, I was worried about turn split problems with plako over Krabbe, but it turns out it was all for naught since plako decided to burn the "City A" in the south, leaving me free to take and keep Krabbe! Obviously xenu whipped it down to size 1 (whipping a Work Boat last turn to provide some manner of defense to the city ), but it kept both the Granary, as well as a Market! There's no sign of any xenu troops in the area (other than that stack xenu abandoned across the water for some reason ) but I still have a decent garrison in both cities just in case (even though it appears plako might have spent most of his forces burning City A).

The more pressing situation is in the south, with xenu's rampaging Knights:


Lots of stuff going on here--I thought about hitting the stack this turn with a bunch of drafted Maces, but notice that xenu didn't put the stack in the forking position I thought he might (I don't know if he has a decent map of my territory, though he does have a Sentry Knight in the stack), but instead put it right next to Annie. I still could have hit it with a bunch of units, but it would have been at the expense of the defenses at Annie--and I forgot about a couple of the Knights not in Abed that could have hit the stack until after all my Maces had moved
Still, my chances should be good in Annie--I shoved 10 units in there (even if 2 are a Cat and a damaged Knight) and xenu only has 11 Knights. Even if my chances aren't as good at Abed (mainly since Annie's not on a hill, and I don't have any pikes), it'll hopefully be enough to hold against a full attack, or best case cause him to retreat the stack again (after which my Cats are basically in range).

To make sure I finish this post, I'm saving all the demo analysis stuff for another post (which may or may not come), but I'll throw in a picture of the north as well:

[Cheater Hater]

Well, new turn, pictures are here--xenu's moved to the pillage only stage of his lifespan, especially considering plako took xenu's non FS city. 2 of xenu's Knights disappeared (I don't know if plako killed them or if xenu just deleted them), and I killed 4 more (severely damaging the rest) by using the Cat and two Knights. I also offered straight peace--I want to avoid more pillaging if possible, and I'm not planning on taking FS anytime soon. Importantly, that doesn't necessarily mean I'm not going to engage in overseas combat, but if I do, it's almost certainly going to be against HAK.

I want to do some sort of report for this turn--I think it'll be more demo analysis-focused than military-focused. I also want to start planning what's next--we need to dotmap the former xenu territory (or at least what plako left me), figure out what I can safely settle in the face of plako, and determine how much more military I need, along with where it and the settlers are coming from (I need to resettle Jeff and finally do "Maybe C", in addition to any new cities from the dotmap).

(also BaII, do you have a list of city names you've been using? SS and Krabbe need new names, along with "Maybe C" and any other cities we settle)

[BaII]

I don't know the naming scheme oxy did, so you could just make a new naming scheme.